PSYC 251 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: African Grey Parrot, Kanzi, Phoneme

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 251
• Professor: Stanka A Fitneva

Document Summary

Symbols and entities that stands for something else. For example, the sound sequence "dog" stands for a four-legged animal that lives with people and barks and "4" represents a certain quantity that can apply equally to forks, clouds, and yearly segments. Symbols are everywhere and the human capacity to use and create symbols is unique in the animal world. This unit focuses on language development both because of its key importance and because of the early onset of language skills. Name and distinguish characteristics of symbols in general and of language as the preeminent symbol system. We use symbols (1) to represent our thoughts, feelings, and knowledge, and (2) to communicate our thoughts, feelings, and knowledge to other people. Our ability to use symbols vastly expands our cognitive and communicative power. It frees us from the present, enabling us to learn from the generations of people who preceded us and to contemplate the future.